FloatPoint Media - Mobile Insights

5 Tweets Filled with BB Q10 Excitement!

Afrisa Yeung — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:13:35 +0000

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Videos: Competing for the Mobile Consumer Market, Commercials of Top Mobile Players

admin — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:53:27 +0000

Attention consumers!!! Take a look at these videos and you can be the judge of who you would like to support. The production value really demonstrates how competitive the mobile environment has become! Competing for the mobile consumer market is a major objective for many tech companies.

Blackberry

Google

Windows Phone

Apple

Ubuntu

Nokia

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Africa leads Europe, US in economic growth, thanks to mobile phones

admin — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:10:59 +0000

Dorli Photography via Compfight

This Article was originally published at http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Africa-leads-Europe-US-in-economic-growth/-/2558/1650012/-/cq1t1hz/-/index.html

Information and communications technology is directly contributing seven per cent of Africa’s economic expansion, beating Europe and the US.

Researchers at the World Bank and the African Development Bank said the growth is being driven by mobile phone technology, which has opened up access to banking, education and other key services.

According to the eTransform Africa report, ICTs are delivering homegrown solutions in Africa, enhancing entrepreneurship, agriculture, innovation and economic growth.

The report gives detailed data on the positive technological growth that has taken place in Africa and its impact on development.

World Bank director for sustainable development in Africa Jamal Saghir said foreign direct investment is booming on the continent and it is now an easier place to do business.

“The Internet and mobile phones are transforming the development landscape in Africa, injecting new dynamism into key sectors,” said Mr Saghir. “The challenge is to scale up these innovations and success stories for greater social and economic impact across the continent over the next decade.”

Enhanced broadband

The report which analysed data from Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Morroco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Tunisia between January 2010 and October 2012 shows that there is rapid development of mobile broadband with smartphones and affordable tablets across Africa that will bring greater social and economic impact over the next decade.

According to the report released last week, from fewer than 20 million fixed line phones across the continent in 2000, the figure has increased to over 650 million mobile subscriptions — more than the US or European Union, making Africa the second fastest growing region in the world.

Mr Saghir said in some regions more people have access to a mobile phone than to clean water or even electricity.

Some 68,000 km of submarine cable and over 615,000 km of national backbone networks have been laid, greatly increasing connectivity across Africa.
The Internet bandwidth available to Africa’s one billion citizens has grown 20-fold since 2008.

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Field Force Apps, 3 Reason to go Native

admin — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:55:34 +0000

Mobility and field force apps go hand in hand. Native apps offer a unique set of attributes that cannot be achieved through web-based or HTML5 technology (can be but only with a unique development platform called Blackberry WebWorks, we will talk more about that in another post). Below is an outline of why mobile software rather than mobile web should be used for field force initiatives.

Field Force Apps – Offline Mode = No Wireless Data Costs

The great thing about native apps is that they can work without an internet connection. This allows enterprises to save on data costs and upload cached information once field force staff get back to the office or if necessary, the closest coffee shop.

Field Force Apps – Camera Integration and Storage

HTML5 and web based solutions do not offer camera integration, therefore attaching photos and storing them on the device is unproven. A native app can integrate with the camera application programming interface and store photos on the device. Therefore users can attach photos to forms and other field force initiatives

Field Force Apps – Native Apps Offer Stability

Native based mobile software offers much more stability than web-based solutions, especially when storing and caching photos and media. Since native apps are running off the device and not a browser, they are able to store files without connectivity. HTML5 offers caching capabilities it has yet to be proven for field force enterprise solutions.

Well, there are multiple options when it comes to building a field force app. If you are interested in discussing how we can implement an app that suits your needs and objectives, fly me an email

Take a look this post about Blackberry 10!

Blackberry is Back, with a New Name, Revamped Brand, and Different Stock Symbol

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Blackberry 10 Pre-SuperBowl Commercial

admin — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 01:09:12 +0000

The Blackberry 10 Pre-Superbowl Commercial

Ravens vs. 49ers in a amazing matchup that has the Harbaugh brothers coaching against each other in the Superbowl. Can you imagine if the game is tied 17-17 going into the fourth and Blackberry 10 plays an amazing BB10 spot. It is not cheap, but it could launch the brand and obtain the highly sought after consumer market!!!!!!

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A Great Post that Highlights Blackberry 10 Features and Hardware

admin — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:41:47 +0000

Thorstein Hein Introducing the New Hardware

The Potential of Blackberry 10

The smartphone market is growing exponentially year over year, which creates an opportunity for Blackberry to obtain crucial market share. Currently, the consumer market is dominated by iOS and Android, but Blackberry has established strong developers relations and has created a solid foundation with their Blackberry 10 operating system. Anecdotally, Blackberry has an opportunity to capture the third market position worldwide, which could lead to significant increases in revenue for the Waterloo based company.

As a developer, we are focused on what Blackberry is doing to support us, rather than, what analysts are saying about financials. So far we have been very happy with their developer relation initiatives. The new standard development kit offers functionality that was not available on Blackberry’s previous system. Therefore it increase the tools available to developers and they are less reliant on building code and widgets from scratch.

Name Change from Research in Motion to Blackberry

The change from Research in Motion to Blackberry is a bold move (excuse the pun) but it seems like the right tactic at this point. Blackberry is trying to reposition as a leader in B2B and B2C solutions. therefore they needed a drastic change in order to improve their brand image. Take a look at the video, which has Blackberry CMO discussing the name change.

The New Blackberry 10 Keyboard

Personally, I have used the new Blackberry 10 Keyboard and it works very well. The time I spent using the keyboard functions, the user experience was slick and enjoyable. It actually feels like a physical keyboard and is probably the most responsive keyboard I have ever used. Once Senior IT decision makers and management have the opportunity to access the keyboard, I can see them arming their enterprise team with BB10 devices. Take a look at the video below!

Blackberry Global Reach

There is no denying that people in developing nations love their Blackberry’s. As they mature and move towards powerful smartphone devices, Blackberry brand loyalty could propel worldwide market share by capturing majority in countries like Indonesia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and other growth markets.

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Blackberry is Back, with a New Name, Revamped Brand, and Different Stock Symbol

admin — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:19:30 +0000

Isriya Paireepairit via Compfight

Research in Motion has been quite a hot topic in the press. They have lost significant market share within the smartphone sector, but they have managed to make a comeback with Blackberry 10. At an event in New York today, Thorstein Heins announced the launch of the new operating, which marks the comeback of Blackberry against competitors like Android, iOS and Windows 8.

Heins announced that Research in Motion will be changing their name to Blackberry and be traded as BB on the TSX and BBRY on the NASDAQ. This is a big move for Blackberry, who announced Alicia Keys as the Global Creative Director for the Blackberry brand. Alicia Keys said “As global creative director, my goal is to inspire creativity with this platform, and I’m so excited to jump right in.”(source: CBC).

Blackberry has done an excellent job marketing their new operating system. Alicia Keys is set to sing the national anthem at the Superbowl this weekend, which will create strong brand recognition alongside the Superbowl ads for BB10. Anecdotal observations, have been that Blackberry is looking to increase adoption within the next quarter and hopefully obtain a strong third market position amongst smartphone manufacturers.

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The Benefits of a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)

admin — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:58:04 +0000

A diagram explaining BES data flow

Research in Motion has specifically designed their Blackberry Enterprise Server to meet the needs and objectives of enterprise and government organizations, which house an email server and require a high level of information technology control.

Currently RIM is offering two unique security and device management technologies for robust businesses:

Blackberry Enterprise Server Express offers a solution for businesses that have specific users who require advanced management. (FREE)

View Demo Here via Blackberry.net

Notable Features Include:

Wireless Synced Calendars
View, edit, save calendar attachment
Remote file access, stored remotely on network drives
Contacts Sync, stays up to date with info on desktop or laptop ect.

Blackberry Balance is design to differentiate between work and personal information while using Blackberry devices. Blackberry Balance can be applied an employee own device or one that has been provided to them. Personal browsing, social networking and media consumption is kept separate from sensitive work information.

Notable Features Include:

Personal apps and browsing are kept separate from work files, therefore decreasing the risk of security breaches
Enables employers to remotely wipe all information or just work information on Blackberry devices. Therefore if an employee is using a personally owned device, data can still be wiped exclusively for work purposes.
If a user tries to download an application or access a file that may be harmful, the action is not permitted. These settings can be set by the Blackberry Balance system

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Infographic: How Much Mobile Data do you Use

Drew Thachuk — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:22:03 +0000

Going over your data limit is generally pretty expensive and it can add up in a year. Take a look at this infographic to get an idea how much data you use while consuming media via your mobile device.

How Much Mobile Data Do You Use? infographic

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Areas to Address when Determining a Mobile Application Strategy

Drew Thachuk — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:33:04 +0000

Sippanont Samchai via Compfight

Before we go into detail I am going to define the difference between a web based application and a native based application.

Web Based Apps

A web based app is browser based and generally run off a URL, but can be added to a home screen of a tablet or smartphone. Written in text rather than binary code. Therefore a little less secure than a native apps. Web based apps are progressing rapidly but have yet to achieve the processing power of native based apps.

Native Based Apps

Native apps are your typical App Store and Google Market apps that can be downloaded, unlike web based apps that run in the browser. Native apps are great for enterprise because they can be loaded on devices and are very user friendly. Also they have offline capabilities. Think of a native app as software rather than a webpage.

Do you need Offline Capabilities?

Generally, if your organization needs offline capabilities and your team if constantly working in the field, than a native based app will best suit your organization needs. Native apps are especially beneficial to industrial, oil and gas, manufacturing organizations that may not have connectivity 100% of the time. Native apps are able to store information gathered during “offline mode” and upload the data to a server once connectivity is restored.

Generally, web apps need connectivity, there are methods that allow browser based apps to store information but they have yet to prove useful for enterprise organizations. Basically, if you need offline capabilities native based is your best bet.

Have you thought about Mobile Commerce?

So…this is a tricky one, because web-apps can be responsive (responsive = automatically adapts to the type of device the web-app is being viewed on i.e. a desktop web-app may look different than the mobile and tablet web app). The intelligence of a web app is able to recognize the device and display a mobile, tablet or desktop optimized web based application. Generally, the user experience is pretty good with web based apps. Cost is generally lower and many major brands are using web based mobile commerce platforms

A native based app offers an immersive experience that is catered to each operating system and downloaded to the device. Therefore the user experience is smoother, much faster and offers the opportunity to reach customers through push notifications. Since the user downloads a native app to their device, mobile commerce providers can market flash sales, new products, and other marketing initiatives through a push notification that offers an immediate call to action.

Are you Considering Leveraging the Capability of the Device…Camera, Calendar, Near Field Communications, GPS, Location Aware Offerings?

If an app is meant to leverage the potential of the device, than a native based mobile strategy would best suit your needs and objectives. Although certain web based techniques are being used to integrate the camera features, GPS and Location aware offerings they are unproven and lack user experience.

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